Q4 2024 Earnings Conference Call Recaps: Apple (AAPL)
Bespoke’s Conference Call Recaps use AI to summarize lengthy earnings calls. The commentary below is AI-generated and then edited by Bespoke for quality control. As always, none of these summaries should be construed as recommendations to buy or sell any securities, and investors should do their own research and/or consult with a financial professional before making any investment decisions.
Our latest recap available to Bespoke subscribers covers Apple’s (AAPL) Q1 2025 earnings call.
Apple (AAPL) is the largest company in the world by market cap, the maker of the iPhone, Mac, iPad, Apple Watch, and AirPods. Its services segment, encompassing the App Store, iCloud, Apple Music, and Apple TV+, is a growing profit engine. As a consumer electronics powerhouse, AAPL provides insights into global consumer demand, premium brand loyalty, and innovation in AI, privacy, and computing. AAPL posted record Q1 revenue of $124.3B (4% YoY growth). Apple Intelligence fueled iPhone demand in markets where it launched, helping iPhone 16 outperform its predecessor. China revenue fell 11%, hurt by inventory adjustments and delayed AI rollout. Meanwhile, India set a new sales record. Mac (+16% YoY) and iPad (+15% YoY) saw strong upgrades, with Apple Silicon driving AI-powered features. Services revenue hit $26.3B (14% YoY growth), with over 1 billion paid subscriptions. The company’s mention of “AI” on its conference call remains well below other megacap tech companies, at seven mentions for the second straight quarter. After beating estimates, AAPL shares opened 4% higher on 1/31, but those gains were wiped out intraday…
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The Former Speaker Buys AI
Artificial intelligence continues to permeate throughout the economy, and one such example coming out of the Health Care sector is Tempus AI (TEM). Founded in 2015 and IPO’ing last June, TEM uses AI to analyze medical data in order to help provide diagnoses and treatment options for patients. As shown below, the stock saw a solid rally in the first couple of months after its IPO but quickly gave up those gains throughout the late summer and fall before a failed retest of those highs in November. By December, the stock had fallen through its 50-DMA and continued to erase any post-IPO gains. That is until the past couple of weeks. On January 14, the stock found a bottom which also happened to be the same day that House Rep and former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi purchased 50 call options in the stock that was later revealed in a disclosure on January 17. In reaction to the disclosure, the stock saw a one-day jump of 21.5%. There has been further follow through in the days since with the stock now back above its 50-DMA and at its highest level since early December. Since Pelosi’s purchase, TEM has rallied more than 80% from the low $30s to the high $50s!
Pelosi (more specifically, Pelosi’s husband Paul) has garnered a reputation as a successful trader in recent years as the trading activity of politicians has become increasingly scrutinized. Up to this point, most of Pelosi’s trades have been in larger-cap names that didn’t necessarily move when the disclosure came out. TEM is one of the first stocks we can recall that likely rallied significantly because of a Pelosi trade disclosure.
Unusual Whales has created two counterpart ETFs that are meant to track Republican Trading (KRUZ) and Democratic Trading (NANC) based on trading activity disclosures from members of Congress and their spouses. As shown below, the Democratic Trading ETF has outperformed SPY since the ETF’s inception in early 2023 with NANC up 58.9% compared to a 46.6% gain in the S&P 500 (SPY). The Republican Trading ETF (KRUZ) has gained roughly 30%, which means it’s up about half as much as the Democratic ETF. Based on these two ETFs at least, investors have recently been better off following the trading patterns of Democrats rather than Republicans in Congress.
Bespoke’s Morning Lineup — 1/31/25
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“The most important lesson an investor can learn is to be dispassionate when confronted by unexpected and unfavorable outcomes.” – Peter Bernstein
Below is a snippet of commentary from today’s Morning Lineup. Start a two-week trial to Bespoke Premium to view the full report.
The S&P 500 ETF (SPY) is currently trading up roughly 0.4% pre-market, while the Nasdaq 100 ETF (QQQ) is up 0.8%. Apple (AAPL) is driving futures higher with a 4% pre-market gain after reporting mostly weaker-than-expected earnings yesterday after the close.
As shown below, all of the key US index ETFs across markets caps are currently in “neutral” territory.
Below is a look at how the biggest decliners during Monday’s sell-off have done since. There were 25 stocks in the S&P 1500 that fell more than 15% on Monday, and those names have averaged a bounce-back gain of 8.06% since Monday’s close. However, they’re still down an average of 13% on the week, so they have some work to do to recover Monday’s losses.
The Closer – Tariffs, NIPAs, More Tech Earnings – 1/30/25
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Looking for deeper insight into markets? In tonight’s Closer sent to Bespoke Institutional clients, we start out with a look into the whipsaw in stocks after tariff news (page 1) followed by a dive into the first estimate of Q4 National Income and Product Accounts (pages 1-3). We finish with a recap of the latest earnings including the results from Apple (AAPL) and Intel (INTC).
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Q4 2024 Earnings Conference Call Recaps: IBM (IBM)
Bespoke’s Conference Call Recaps use AI to summarize lengthy earnings calls. The commentary below is AI-generated and then edited by Bespoke for quality control. As always, none of these summaries should be construed as recommendations to buy or sell any securities, and investors should do their own research and/or consult with a financial professional before making any investment decisions.
Our latest recap available to Bespoke subscribers covers IBM’s (IBM) Q4 2024 earnings call.
IBM (IBM) specializes in hybrid cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and consulting services. Its Red Hat subsidiary drives cloud adoption, while watsonx AI powers enterprise AI applications. The company’s mainframes (IBM Z) remain essential for mission-critical workloads in the banking, retail, and government sectors. IBM is a major force in quantum computing and cybersecurity, offering insight into how large enterprises integrate AI and automation. IBM closed 2024 strong, with $12.7 billion in free cash flow, its highest in years. Generative AI adoption accelerated, with IBM’s AI book of business hitting $5 billion, up $2 billion QoQ. Red Hat grew 17%, with OpenShift reaching $1.4 billion ARR, up 25%. The IBM Z16 mainframe cycle remains its most successful ever, with the upcoming Z17 launch in mid-2025 set to expand AI integration. Consulting signings hit a record $1.5 billion in AI-driven bookings, though macro uncertainty still impacts client IT spending. IBM projects 5%+ revenue growth in 2025, with HashiCorp’s acquisition strengthening its cloud automation strategy. Despite global uncertainties, IBM sees tech investment as a top enterprise priority. IBM shares were up more than 12% on 1/30 in reaction to the report and on optimism related to AI…
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Bespoke’s Weekly Sector Snapshot — 1/30/25
Q4 2024 Earnings Conference Call Recaps: United Parcel Service (UPS)
Bespoke’s Conference Call Recaps use AI to summarize lengthy earnings calls. The commentary below is AI-generated and then edited by Bespoke for quality control. As always, none of these summaries should be construed as recommendations to buy or sell any securities, and investors should do their own research and/or consult with a financial professional before making any investment decisions.
Our latest recap available to Bespoke subscribers covers United Parcel Service’s (UPS) Q4 2024 earnings call.
United Parcel Service (UPS) is one of the world’s largest package delivery and supply chain management companies, serving businesses ranging from small e-commerce sellers to major corporations. UPS provides a key barometer for global trade, consumer demand, and business-to-business shipping trends. UPS is reshaping its business by cutting its largest customer, Amazon, by over 50% by mid-2026 to improve profitability. This move will reconfigure its network, close 10% of facilities, and drive $1 billion in cost savings through the Efficiency Reimagined initiative. The company ended its reliance on USPS for SurePost (UPS’s economy shipping service that uses UPS’s network for most of the package’s journey but traditionally relied on USPS for final-mile residential delivery), citing service risks, and now delivers 100% in-house. Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) continue to be a priority, making up 28.9% of US volume, with a goal of 32% in 2025. International growth was strong, with Asia export volumes up 15.4%. Healthcare logistics remains a major focus, targeting $20 billion in revenue by 2026. UPS expects 6% revenue per piece (RPP) growth in 2025, emphasizing pricing discipline and higher-margin customers. UPS results were mixed as revenues came up short, and the stock tanked around 14% in reaction to the Amazon news…
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Q4 2024 Earnings Conference Call Recaps: Meta Platforms (META)
Bespoke’s Conference Call Recaps use AI to summarize lengthy earnings calls. The commentary below is AI-generated and then edited by Bespoke for quality control. As always, none of these summaries should be construed as recommendations to buy or sell any securities, and investors should do their own research and/or consult with a financial professional before making any investment decisions.
Our latest recap available to Bespoke subscribers covers Meta Platform’s (META) Q4 2024 earnings call.
Meta Platforms (META) is a global leader in social media, digital advertising, and artificial intelligence, operating Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger, and now Threads. The company is at the forefront of AI development with its Meta AI assistant and open-source Llama models, while also pushing into hardware with Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses and virtual reality through its Quest headsets. Meta’s platforms serve billions of users daily. META closed 2024 reporting $48.4 billion in revenue (+21% YoY). AI was the central theme, with Meta AI scaling to 700M+ users and Llama 4 expected to surpass proprietary models. CEO Mark Zuckerberg called AI glasses a potential “next computing platform,” while Threads hit 320M MAUs, adding 1M users daily. Ad revenue was up 21% and AI-driven tools like Andromeda improved ad performance. META is spending heavily, with $60B-$65B in capex planned for 2025, primarily on AI infrastructure. Regulatory shifts and TikTok’s uncertain future could also reshape competition. META shares were up about 3% at the opening bell on 1/30…
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Old School Cool Again?
As we said in today’s Morning Lineup, IBM (IBM) is giving the market a blast from the past today as shares surged in reaction to earnings. As of this writing, IBM is trading at an all-time high thanks to an impressive 12.76% gain versus yesterday’s close. That is not only the single best performance of any S&P 500 component today, but the 12%+ gain is on pace to be the third largest daily gain in IBM’s long history dating back almost 60 years! The only two other days in the stock’s history that have seen it rise by more were back in July 1996 and April 1999; both of which were also positive reactions to earnings.
IBM has fallen out of its Tech leadership role over the years. 25 years ago it ranked as the seventh largest stock in the S&P 500, but today it is only the 40th largest. However, IBM isn’t the only leader of the past having come back with a vengeance. In the tables below, we show the seven stocks that were the largest in the S&P 500 25 years ago along with the largest currently (i.e. the Magnificent Seven). Those former megacaps accounted for a significant 20.25% of the S&P 500’s market cap back then, but today’s cohort is even more dominant accounting for over 32%.
As for year-to-date performance in 2025, we would note that the past leaders have been outperforming the current leaders. The seven largest stocks from 2000 have risen an average of 6.6% in 2025. That includes the 17%+ gain in IBM, a 20%+ gain in General Electric (GE), and a high single-digit percentage gain in Walmart (WMT). Regardng General Electric, the company today is a much different entity than the conglomerate from 25 years ago. With that said, even looking at GE’s spin-off companies (not shown below) like GE Health Care (GEHC) and GE Veranova (GEV), returns have been respectable, each gaining well over 14% year to date.
Again, the current leaders of the S&P 500 account for a much larger share of market cap and hence have a much greater impact on the index’s performance. But that is the weaker group of stocks so far this year. On average, those seven names are up only 0.74% YTD (median: 1.93% decline). Four of the seven are down on the year including an almost 12% drop in NVIDIA (NVDA).
Q4 2024 Earnings Conference Call Recaps: Tesla (TSLA)
Bespoke’s Conference Call Recaps use AI to summarize lengthy earnings calls. The commentary below is AI-generated and then edited by Bespoke for quality control. As always, none of these summaries should be construed as recommendations to buy or sell any securities, and investors should do their own research and/or consult with a financial professional before making any investment decisions.
Our latest recap available to Bespoke subscribers covers Tesla’s (TSLA) Q4 2024 earnings call.
Tesla (TSLA) is the world’s most valuable EV maker, pioneering full self-driving technology. Beyond cars, TSLA develops energy solutions, from grid-scale battery storage to solar power, and is a leader in real-world AI robotics with its Optimus humanoid robots. In Q4, CEO Elon Musk reported record delivered vehicles at an annualized rate of close to 2 million per year. Model Y was also crowned the best-selling vehicle of any kind in 2024. Musk doubled down on autonomy, announcing unsupervised Full Self-Driving (FSD) will launch in Austin by June, calling it potentially “the largest asset value increase in human history.” Battery constraints limited growth, but TSLA is expanding energy storage with a second Shanghai Megapack factory. The company is revamping Model Y across all factories simultaneously, causing short-term production losses. Optimus humanoid robot development is accelerating, with 10,000 units targeted for 2025. Tesla Semi’s production ramp is set for 2026, and a new affordable EV is on track for 2025. Regulatory hurdles in Europe and China remain obstacles for FSD expansion. TSLA shares opened 5.8% higher on 1/30 despite missing estimates…
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